Recently it's been very disappointing to see my ISP, Internode, revising it's Naked ADSL plans in a very downwards direction. The price-point that I'm on now ($60/month) fetched me 70GB of quota when i signed up just over a year ago, then later last year moved up to 150GB for the same price. Now they're making users on that plan pay an extra $10/month to keep the same quota, or take up the new plan at the same $60 price-point which only includes a measly 30GB of quota.

Partly the reasons given for this almost unprecedented decrease in value is price rises charged by Telstra for access to the copper lines (which is mostly understandable), but the other less-stomachable reason is the underestimation of the usage patterns of Naked-ADSL users. This is a very Exetel-ish excuse of effectively blaming users for actually using up the quota that they paid for, as ISPs gamble that a plan will be profitable overall if only a certain percentage of customers on a particular plan will actually use most of their assigned quota.

I don't mind paying the extra $10 a month to keep my current quota (which most people have been saying is effectively the Telstra ULL access cost increases charged to most ISPs), but what is worrying me is that when we relocate the connection into the new house (once it is built) i'll have to choose from the currently offered plans: $60 for 30GB, or $80 for 200GB. 30GB is not nearly enough, but 200GB is way overkill (our average seems to be 50-80GB/month).

Speaking of house-related stuff, things are now full-steam ahead in terms of the house building. After almost 6 months of Council building applications, reviews, and appeal periods, things are finally about to get going. We're going to be taking daily photos of the construction so hopefully I can make a cool time-lapse video of the house being built.